


Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH): Thanksgiving Dinner

by literally_no_idea



Series: Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH) Main Series [36]
Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, SDfSH 'verse, Service Animals, Service Dogs, Thanksgiving Dinner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 15:05:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18501460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literally_no_idea/pseuds/literally_no_idea
Summary: Thanksgiving dinner is a bit of a struggle; they’ve got 32 people coming, but only 16 places at the table, so Tony builds a square table that they put in the living room, moving the couches and other furniture to use as seats around the table, and they decide that half of them will sit at the “kids’ table,” as Tony dubs it.





	Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH): Thanksgiving Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to the series, or if you're new here, welcome! This part of the series is about everyone at Thanksgiving dinner together! Enjoy!

Thanksgiving dinner is a bit of a struggle; they’ve got 32 people coming, but only 16 places at the table, so Tony builds a square table that they put in the living room, moving the couches and other furniture to use as seats around the table, and they decide that half of them will sit at the “kids’ table,” as Tony dubs it.

 

With 32 people attending the dinner, the next dilemma is what to do for food; There’s only so much that the Avengers team can cook in the tower on their own, so they enlist the help of their guests to get all the cooking done. They decide to make the dinner a potluck, and since there’s also a generally shared sentiment of hating the fact that Thanksgiving originally comes from colonizers taking the land of the Native Americans, they decide to make it a “represent diversity” potluck, with everyone encouraged to make their favorite dishes from other countries.

 

Tony organizes the whole thing, finding out who’s cooking what and helping organize who cooks where. By the day before Thanksgiving, everyone’s figured out where they’ll be cooking at; many of the guests are cooking at their own homes, but some of them are coming to cook at the tower.

 

Thanksgiving day, the guests cooking at the tower start to filter in. Misty and Wade head up to Bruce’s floor to help Bruce make some traditional Brazilian food, recipes he’d picked up while he was living in Brazil. Rhodey, Peter, and May work in the kitchen on Rhodey and Tony’s floor, making the turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. Stephen goes to Bucky and Steve’s floor by himself to make green bean casserole, claiming that he works better in silence (which Tony knows is a lie, Stephen doesn’t work better in silence, he just works better with music and no one else talking, but since Tony is the same, he doesn’t comment).

 

Natasha, Bucky, and Clint work on some traditional Russian food on Natasha’s floor, Nebula works on zucchini bread on her own floor, and Loki and Thor work on traditional Asgardian food on their floor. On the communal floor, Steve works on fruit salad, Foggy makes ham, Karen makes carrot cake, Frank makes both lasagna and tiramisu (because he “doesn’t trust any of these dumb fucks to make Italian food correctly”), and Pepper makes a few different fresh salads.

 

Everyone else is cooking from places outside of the tower; Sam, Coulson, Matt, and Happy each cook at their own homes, making vegan meatloaf, cornbread, apple pie, and corn on the cob, respectively, Luke and Claire cook Puerto Rican food at Claire’s apartment, T’Challa and Shuri make traditional Wakandan food at home in Wakanda, Jessica and Malcolm make mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole at Malcolm’s place, and Wong, Colleen, and Danny make traditional Chinese food at Danny and Colleen’s place.

 

The only person who isn’t actively involved in cooking something is Tony himself, so he takes the opportunity to go get his contribution for dinner, carrying it into the communal floor kitchen with a flourish. “Ta-da! I made pie,” Tony says, and everyone spins to face him, concerned, only to relax when they see what he’s holding.

 

“Tony, you don’t get to say you ‘made’ pie when you just bought it from the store,” Steve says, and Tony glares at him.

 

“Says the guy who’s just dumping pre-cut fruit into a bowl as ‘fruit salad,’ you didn’t actually  _ make _ that, you know,” Tony says, and Steve clenches his jaw but doesn’t say anything, just turns back to his bowl of fruit.

 

Tony internally cheers for his win of a comeback. Tony, 100, Steve, 0.

 

Tony once again takes on his role of welcoming committee, greeting everyone that comes in and showing them where to put their food. They’ve asked everyone to put their dishes into two separate containers, one for the adults table and one for the kids table, so Tony organizes where to put the food on both tables, then directs each person to their seat for the night.

 

A few other things get added to the tables as well; small bowls of olives, other little things that weren’t big enough to put in large serving dishes.

 

Everyone finally settles in for dinner somewhere around 7pm, and when they’re ready, Tony asks JARVIS to calls the dogs, most of whom have all been kept off the communal floor until the commotion of everyone coming in dies down. While most of the dogs had been elsewhere in the tower, Fubar had stayed with Bucky, because Bucky had worried that he would have either a seizure or a dissociative episode, despite taking his as needed meds for both, Aelfhun had stayed with Loki, because Loki had been worried that the new guests would still hate him for his past, and Ubunye had stayed with T’Challa, mostly because Ubunye had just refused to leave T’Challa’s side.

 

With that in mind, each of the handlers around the room gives JARVIS their permission to call their dog, and they start in on dinner while they wait for the dogs to arrive.

 

* * *

 

Diva looks up when Tony’s voice comes from the ceiling. “Diva, ready to go to work, kiddo?” Tony’s voice says, and Diva wags his tail, hopping up from where he’s been laying on the floor of Tony’s workshop letting Dum-E brush him out. Diva runs to the door, pushing it open with his front paws and waiting at the elevator for JARVIS to take him to where Tony is.

 

The elevator doors open, and Diva steps in, gently bumping noses with Smash. Diva loves Smash, because she’s smart like Diva and she works with Bruce, and Tony likes Bruce and Diva likes him too. The elevator takes them to the communal floor, and Diva’s immediately hit with smells. So, so many good smells. But he’s working, so he ignores the food smells, heading to the dining room where-- Yes! There’s his handler!-- Tony is sitting at the head of the table.

 

Diva bumps his nose gently against Tony’s hip, sitting beside him on the side closest to the door, because he’s supposed to stay on the side of Tony by doorways. Tony gives him a quick scratch behind the ears while he talks with Misty, and Diva leans into it, soaking up the attention while he watches his friends enter the room.

 

Verity sits down beside him so she’s between Steve and Tony, and Diva likes Verity, because she’s smart and fun and also she likes to knock Steve over, and Diva admires that. Valor walks past them to reach Rhodey, and Diva likes him too, even if he is kind of quiet and formal sometimes.

 

Lapushka heads towards Natasha, and Diva really, really likes Lapushka, maybe because he got to be her big brother while Tony was working with her, or maybe because she’s so good to Natasha and Diva’s really glad that Natasha let him work with Tony, because he loves Tony, or maybe he just likes Lapushka because she’s really cool. Again, Diva’s not sure.

 

Smash and Sable are also on that side of the table. On the other side of the table, Ava, Quasar, Harvey, Thelonious, and Ubunye are all settled at their handlers’ feet. Diva can’t see everyone else in the living room, there’s a wall, but from where he’s at he can see Fubar, Grace, and Araneus, and they all seem to be doing fine, so Diva focuses his attention back on Tony.

 

Diva wants to make sure the other dogs are doing okay, and that the other handlers are okay, but mostly because he wants to make sure that they’re not going to upset Tony, and if they’re fine, then it’s more important to focus on his handler so Tony doesn’t upset himself.

 

Everything seems to be going fine, so Diva lays down, facing out towards the living room, just in case, because he can still pay attention to Tony even when he’s looking the other way.

 

They’re partway into dinner when Diva notices some stress sounds and smells coming from the living room, and he gets up to investigate, because even though Fubar, Grace, and Araneus look calm, something else might be wrong. He pads over to the doorway, because Tony doesn’t mind if he wanders a little when they’re at home, and that’s when he sees the glint of various weapons under the table, plus really subtle fear smell and that’s not good, that’s a bad sign. It’s a little confusing though, because his friends’ handlers seem perfectly fine, laughing as Sparkles’ handler, Thor, holds up a hand with food on the ends of it.

 

Diva walks back to Tony’s side, nudging his hip with a small whine. Tony looks down at him, frowning. “I’m fine,” Tony says, and Diva’s not sure what that means, exactly, other than Tony doesn’t understand, so Diva walks over to the doorway and back, nudging Tony’s hip again. “Okay?” Tony says, standing up, and yes, good, that’s what Diva wanted. He drops into a heel beside Tony, in case he’s needed.

 

* * *

 

Tony’s definitely a little confused by Diva’s behavior, because he feels fine, he’s not stressed, but something in the living room seems to be upsetting Diva, so he follows the dog to the doorway, groaning when he finally sees what’s happening at the kids table, and yes, now he’s sure that calling it the kids table was a good idea.

 

“Peter!” Tony scolds, and half the table bursts out laughing. Thor, sitting on Peter’s right, has olives on each of his fingers, and is now frowning at Tony, confused.

 

“What’s wrong? Peter was simply showing me one of your ancient Earth customs,” Thor says, and Tony shakes his head in disbelief, turning to stare at Loki instead.

 

“You really didn’t say anything?” he asks.

 

Loki just points at Jessica, who’s sitting on his left. “She threatened to throw me out the window if I said anything, and while a fall from this tall of a building wouldn’t kill me, it wouldn’t be comfortable, either.”

 

Jessica nods. “Damn right. Come on, Stark, it’s fucking funny, you really can’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same.”

 

“I would have done the same, you’re right, which is exactly why I’m mad at Peter, because he’s supposed to be better than me,” Tony says, turning back to Peter as he finishes his sentence.

 

Peter practically droops. “Sorry, Mr. Stark,” he says quietly, and Tony sighs, because damn it, he can’t stay mad when the kid has those fucking puppy dog eyes.

 

“Fine, yeah, it’s fine, whatever. Just… don’t tell Pepper I let you off the hook. She’ll never let me live it down.”

 

Peter brightens up again. “Sure thing, Mr. Stark! You have my word.”

 

Tony turns to the rest of the table. “And those of you that were threatening other people at the table, for Christ’s sake, would you please repeal your statements of violence?”

 

There’s a pause, and then the sound of at least one knife being put back into its sheath and at least one gun’s safety being put back on, and Tony wants to slam his head into the nearest wall. “Or put your weapons away, apparently, fucking hell, you guys, really? Really? We’re having  _ Thanksgiving dinner _ .”

 

Tony heads back to the dining room, dropping into his seat and reaching down to run a hand through Diva’s fur. “Good job, kiddo. Okay, what were we talking about?” Tony directs the second part towards May and Rhodey, who he was talking to before the commotion started.

 

“Your MIT stories,” Rhodey says with a grin, and Tony rolls his eyes. Right, that.

 

* * *

 

Diva finds himself dozing off at Tony’s side when they’ve settled back down at the table again, and he wakes up when the food starts getting moved off the table, being replaced by even more food. Once the food has been rearranged and things calm down again, Diva drifts back in and out of sleep, until this round of food gets taken away again and then people are standing up, and all the dogs are being sent to the nice room down the hall.

 

Diva leads the other dogs into the room, flopping on his favorite dog bed with a huff, and the other dogs spread out around the room on the various beds and blankets on the floor, listening to the calming music playing from the ceiling.

 

Diva doesn't think they’ve been there long, just long enough for Sable to fall asleep and start drooling on Diva’s tail (which, okay,  _ gross _ ), when their handlers’ voices start to call them from the ceiling. Diva stands, stretching, and follows Smash out of the room, down the hall to the living room, where the table is gone and the couches are back where they normally are.

 

Their handlers are standing or sitting around the room, holding different bowls that smell like the food that was on the tables earlier.

 

“Diva,” Tony calls, and Diva heads over to his handler, prancing just a little as he walks.

 

“Okay, ready?” Tony says, and Diva doesn’t know what that means until Tony sets the bowl down in front of him, and he’s confused, because is this like those times when Tony drops food and Diva’s not supposed to pick it up? But then Tony says “Go ahead,” and that’s Diva’s food cue!

 

Diva sniffs the bowl, looking up to confirm with Tony one more time, and when Tony nods, says “Yes!” Diva starts eating, and holy shit, it’s good, Diva can’t remember ever being allowed to eat this before, but it’s warm, and soft, and tasty, and fuck yes, this is what Diva is  _ talking _ about, this is way better than the dry chunks Diva eats normally.

 

When Diva’s licked the bowl clean, Tony chuckles, picking the bowl up and petting Diva’s head. “Happy Thanksgiving,” Tony says, and Diva doesn’t know what that means, but he hopes it starts happening a lot more often. He still won’t eat food like this unless Tony says he can, but he really, really wants Tony to say he can eat this stuff sometimes.

 

Diva looks around the room, and based on the shouts of “Hell yes!” from all his friends, Diva has a feeling that all of them want this to happen more often too.

**Author's Note:**

> Service dog facts of the day:
> 
> -A lot of service dogs have a "work" cue! Something that tells them that they need to focus on their job, and that they're going to be working. For example, a handler might ask their dog "Ready to go to work?" and their dog will come over and get ready to put their gear on, or they might just say "work" or something similar!
> 
> -Similarly, a lot of handlers will have some kind of command to tell their dog that they're done working and/or done with a particular task. I've seen handlers use "finish" to tell their dogs that they no longer have to hold a down stay, or "okay" or some other release cue. When a service dog is done working entirely for a while, I've also seen people use different cues for that, such as "all done." Anything can be the cue word/phrase, as long as you're consistent and don't use it for another behavior.
> 
> -Service dogs often have a cue for eating too! This comes especially in handy if you have more than one dog, if you're training them not to eat food off the floor, etc. Basically, the concept is that you could set an entire bowl of food directly in front of the dog, and they wouldn't eat it without being given the go ahead first.
> 
> -Also, service dogs are rarely (if ever) given human food, even as treat rewards. This is because it can send conflicting messages to your dog if you let them have human food sometimes, but not all the time, and then the dog is more likely to try and eat human food off the floor, go counter surfing, steal off your plate, etc.
> 
> With all that said, if you want to see more drabbles or notes related to this series or you want to talk to me about this series or anything else, you can find me on tumblr [ here ](https://servicedogsforsuperheroes.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Bucky's dog Fubar is based on the lovely webcomic [ Bucky and Fubar](https://buckyandfubar.tumblr.com/) by the amazing [ yawpkatsi ](https://yawpkatsi.tumblr.com/) on tumblr!
> 
> Bruce/Hulk's dog being named Smash and the original concept for this series comes from AO3 user [ thingswithwings ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thingswithwings/pseuds/thingswithwings) and their story [ "Five Ways to Get In Touch with Your Inner Mild-Mannered Scientist" ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/429749?view_adult=true)
> 
> As always, thank you for reading!!!


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